


Emily and Eden

by newgman



Category: Original Work
Genre: Emily casually murders someone, Mostly talking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-02
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-10-20 20:16:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17628962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newgman/pseuds/newgman
Summary: Emily searches for more magic to make herself stronger.





	1. A Meeting

Emily trudged through the Abyss slowly. With each step her foot sunk into the ground and black oil pooled upwards, reaching her red pants but always sliding off as she pulled her leg up. Her red eyes tracked the ground carefully for suspicious activity. Wary of the ground once again coming alive with eyes and teeth and hate. Ace moved slowly behind her as well, but her silver companion moved with far more ease.

She had no grand destination in mind, but a few good candidates to consider. After the debacle, she just wanted to get away for a moment. Jade probably wouldn’t need her help picking up the pieces for a while. Besides, if she needed help, she knew how to contact her.

Finally, she reached one of the interesting locations she noted. This could potentially allow her to expand her abilities in a way that would be hard to counter. Assuming of course, that what she could gather was correct.

With almost contemptuous ease she began slipping through the barrier between the Abyss and the candidate world. Only pausing to make sure that Ace would wait there for her signal. As she stepped into the world, cold stone greeted her.

“Feudal, huh?” she said to no one in particular. The hallway was unmarked, leaving unclear which path led to which and a quick glance did nothing to clear up the confusion. Her options were to wander aimlessly or hope that a guard showed up and took her to the monarch rather than a dungeon. She walked down the path to the right into a maze of corridors, pausing only to dive into shadows as guards approached. 

Eventually, she reached an impressively decorated and guarded set of doors. Either these were to the entrance or the throne room. She slipped between this world and the Abyss repeatedly, moving from shadow to shadow. Once she had only a single column between her and the door she risked the use of one her abilities, the flesh of her right arm twisted and reformed into a set of black chitinous talons. With a single swipe of them, she tore reality open and began reshaping her arm back to its original shape. 

“If I end up teleporting into a wall, I’m going to lose it,” she muttered to herself and leaped towards the oily tear. As soon as she was through, she was falling through the air towards the stone floor. She quickly reoriented herself as she fell and managed to land on her feet.

“Who are you?” came an unfamiliar voice in a familiar tone. Emily glanced to her left to find a woman in what seemed to be decorative armor glaring at her. Given how the eyes in the cape seemed to be actively glaring at her as well, it’d be safe to assume that it was magic in some form or another.

“Oh, no one special,” she began, “Just a person interested in a trade.” She took a few steps towards them when the apparently shocked guards finally sprung into action. Emily ignored them as she strode forward, they’ll probably get into a defensive stance around her. A hassle but nothing truly special.

She was unprepared for the spear to pierce through her back and out of her chest, piercing through her magically reinforced suit and the living carapace armor beneath it. The second and third tore through her torso while she was surprised, spraying a mixture of her black blood and the armor’s bright crimson blood. She recovered quickly from the shock and caught the fourth one with ease.

“That’s rude,” she gurgled as blood pooled in her vestigial lungs. “What happened to sacred hospitality?” she continued in a faux-hurt tone. With casual ease she tore the spear out of the guard’s hands and slammed down on her with it, snapping it in two with the force of it. She tossed away the broken weapon and tossed away another guard with the same ease. He slammed into the wall with a sickening crack and went limp. She reached back and grabbed the last two terrified guards by the throats and hoist them in front of her. The choked and struggled as gravity and her grip crushed her throat before she slammed their heads together and dropped them to the ground.

“Stop right there,” the apparent monarch demanded brandishing bladed fans. Emily stopped as the spears still in her were pushed out by the healing flesh. “You intrude here, attack my guards, and think we can trade?” she asked angry and incredulous.

“Yes,” Emily answered cheerfully. “Though to be fair, I was defending myself from their unwarranted attack,” she clarified.

“UNWARRENTED!?” she screamed at Emily. 

“You’re not supposed to attack guests in your home,” Emily said. “It’s just basic decency.”

“You-! Why-?” they continued to struggle to find the proper response to Emily’s answers, fury making it difficult to articulate her thoughts. Finally, she sighs and slumps into her throne and asks, “What do you want and why should I care? You killed my guards.”

“Well, I’d like to learn any magic here that I can and in turn, I’ll teach you the magic that I know. I’ll also help out around here, maybe dealing with dissidents or something like that,” she answered. “Oh, and don’t worry, they’re not dead and I can heal the damage.”

“Why would I want your magic when I already have my own? And why should I teach you anything?” the ruler questioned, avoiding the mention of dissidents.

“Well, odds are there are things you just can’t do with your magic that I can do with mine,” Emily replied seriously. “Like, oh I don’t know, creating life, resurrecting loved ones, or killing gods,” she continued casually, noting how Eden’s eyes widened at the mention of resurrection. “I got a surprising amount of use out of that last bit.” The ruler stared intently before answering.

“Bold claims, but I need proof,” she finally said. Emily grinned far too wide and grabbed one of the unconscious guards. “I thought you said they’re alive,” she asked as her eyes narrowed.

“They are. See?” she asks as she tore the guard’s armor open showing her chest rise and fall with each breath. “Completely alive, yeah?” she said with a smile. The ruler’s eyes widened as she realized what was being implied. But before she could do anything Emily’s hands tore through her clothes, flesh, and bone. Her hand came away from the guard holding their heart in her hand, before dropping the body. The guard awoke at the pain and writhed briefly before succumbing to the wound and dying.

Emily snatched the soul as it lingered with unusual calmness. Without visibly moving, she forced the soul back into the body. The guard’s body twitched and shook before suddenly sitting upright with a terrified expression. She began screaming.

“Uh, don’t worry. You’re okay,” Emily offered with a placating gesture. For some reason, the resurrected guard wasn’t calmed by the sight of her murderer still holding her heart. Emily offered the monarch a sheepish smile, “This usually doesn’t happen.” She just stared in shock as Emily turned back to the guard and punched her with enough force to knock her unconscious again. “I’ll… just remove her memories of this later and fix her wounds.”

“You…ugh,” her hands found themselves clasped around her face in exasperation. “Do you find it fun tormenting my guards?”

“Yes.”

“Your necromancy, can it be used on people that have been dead for a long time?” she asked, trying to ignore the response.

“Yes, but it’d depend on a lot of things,” Emily replied.

“What kind of things?”

“How long they’ve been dead for, how many things of personal importance that I can get, preparation time, raw power, if they want to stay dead, and their connection to magic,” she answered. “Why? Have someone in mind already?”

“Does that matter to you?” the monarch shot back.

“Guess not,” Emily shrugged. “But I’m not going to do it if you don’t accept the deal.” 

“Fine,” they bit out at Emily. Emily beamed at her and tossed the heart into the guard’s open chest cavity. She offered her clean hand to the monarch and they shook.

“The name’s Emily, by the by,” Emily said.

“Eden,” she replied.

“Guess you’re technically my boss for now Eden.”


	2. A Confrontation

Emily studied the book in front of her wordlessly. Each page was filled thoroughly with intricate diagrams and explanations of how to use the dark magic belonging to the Dullahan. There were a few issues present though, she could barely read the language it was recorded in and the diagrams weren’t helping her use any of the power. The other books weren’t anymore helpful either. Which left her with only three possible solutions to her dilemma. 

The first is to summon the Dealmaker to see if he could give her the knowledge of how to read it. Problem is that she already burnt that bridge and Eden probably would be upset about her summoning a demon in her castle. Or at least the vandalism inherent to doing so safely.

The second would be to simply ask for help in translating the language. A simple solution, but it runs into the problems of either being seen as weak or unable to provide her own end of the bargain. Both could lead to problems. Granted, she’s making assumptions about them and could be wrong.

The third is just to knuckle down and translate it a word at a time. Which would be a time-consuming process at best. And that’s assuming that the language follows similar grammar and spelling conventions to English. Which is doubtful.

Emily reclined back in the wooden chair, letting her head hang back and give her an upside-down view of the door. Before she could move or do anything else, the door opened.

“Eden?” she asked in an irritated and rough voice. “Where are you---” she suddenly stopped saying anything the moment their eyes locked. The pause gave Emily ample time to observe the intruder. She wore bulky metal armor with two jagged swords hanging at her hips. Long hair and a cape flowed behind her and her large ears had multiple piercings each. Most concerningly was the bleeding agonized faces decorating her pauldrons.

Huh, Emily thought, what an edgelord. Though I guess that I don’t have room to talk. She didn’t get anymore time to criticize the Dullahan’s tastes or even to greet her, as she tore her swords free and lunged at Emily.

With a push, Emily let herself fall backwards. A sword passes roughly where her head was a moment ago and plants itself firmly into the wall. Well, there’s one less to worry about, Emily thought as she rolled back to her feet.

Almost immediately she pulled the blade free, small chunks of stone and dust rained on the books lying on the desk. Of course. Fantastic. Wonderful, Emily complained to herself. Before Emily could do anything more, she was forced to move as a flurry of blows was thrown at her by the intruder.

Each thrust and slash slowly grew more accurate, eventually one landed a hit on her. A downward slash tore through her magic barrier, armor, flesh, and suit. Her right arm was severed easily from her body in a spray of bright red and pitch-black blood. They both stood there silently staring at the bleeding stump as the severed arm hit the ground with a wet noise. The stranger with a satisfied expression and Emily with a blank one.

“You’re not very polite, ya know?” Emily asked bluntly. Irritation flashed on the intruder’s face as she reached back to launch another slash.

Before she could do so, a large metal hand grasped her wrist. She whipped her head back to see silver armor, seemingly made up of several individual strips molded around their chest. Her head tilted upwards to be greeted with a wolf like helmet with its teeth bared and a faint blue glow from the empty eye sockets.

“Wha---” was as far as she got before the armored figure picked her up and threw her through the door. The wooded door shattered into splinters upon contact, letting the noise of her crashing noisily on the ground flow into the room.

“What took you so long?” Emily asked the Ace as she walked over to her severed arm.

“Sorry, the barrier fought me,” the answer was accompanied with a gesture behind her. The wall behind was stained a deep black and seemed to be actively leaking Abyssal fluids.

“We’ll have to see about fixing that after dealing with our ‘guest,’” Emily announced as she reattached her arm in a single fluid motion. “Let’s get to work.” Ace nodded and walked calmly out of the room, bending her body to avoid further damage to the now ruined room.

They were greeted by the sight of the Dullahan pulling herself out of a crater in the ground. One of her swords went missing in one corner or another. She was a bit too far to figure out her expression, but fury is probably a reasonable guess. Ace wordlessly reached out and shadows twisted as small pieces were pulled free of them. They coalesced into her own blade. It was massive and silver, decorated with thin capillary indentations leading to a massive vein structure feeding the handle.

Ace prepared to launch herself at her when a massive spike of ice shot out at her. She twisted in time for it to noisily graze her armor and embed itself in the wall, a few inches above Emily’s head.

“Just kick her damn teeth in already,” Emily instructed with irritation in her voice. Ace didn’t need anymore instruction and bolted down the hallway. Immediately more spikes of ice rained down the hallway, at the speed she was going she could only dodge a few. Of the many that hit, most bounced off. But a few pierced her armored exoskeleton and punched into the slurry of her flesh beneath it. Each spear was pushed out by her regenerating flesh and the holes sealed over by her armor.

As she was reaching sword range, the stranger launched herself at Ace. She slammed her armored feet into the ground to halt herself and attack, but the stranger was already too close. In a single slash she tore open Ace’s stomach. A thick, black, viscous fluid oozed out of the massive wound. But the wound quickly closed, leaving no sign of its presence. Besides the blood staining the ground.

Ace retaliated swiftly, lashing out with her massive sword with the speed and effort typically used with daggers. The stranger twisted out of the way of each blow, but not having the chance to continue attacking. Eventually Ace swung in a harsh downward arc. When the Dullahan dodged this blow Ace’s blade ended up fully planted in the ground and the Dullahan lashed out with a tremendously strong slash that separated Ace’s arms at the elbows.

Whatever joy she felt evaporated as Ace’s boot slammed into her stomach and threw into the wall. As she tore herself free from the stone, she caught sight of Ace’s arms already regrowing from their slick black stumps. With a roar she launched herself from her position at Ace.

Before Ace could dodge, they were floored by the force of the stranger’s attack. With her straddling Ace, she began slashing and stabbing at the warrior. Each blow tore large seeping wounds in their bone armor that regrew before the next blow. With a loud roar she firmly stabbed into Ace’s chest, where her heart should be. At this blow Ace seized up and the lights faded from her empty sockets.

At her victory, she hunched forward breathing heavily. She planted a hand on Ace’s chest as she prepared to stand. Suddenly Ace’s hands short forward, grabbing her arm pressing against Ace’s chest. Before she could react, Ace exerted tremendous force and bent her arm backwards. Her screams were drowned out by the sounds of bones snapping and metal grinding against metal. Ace then grabbed her by the throat with one hand and snapped the sword in two with the other.

In one smooth motion she stood up and hoisted the Dullahan up with her. As she did this, the lights in her sockets relit and the sword fragment in her chest was pushed out by her healing flesh. Ace’s jaws cracked and shifted ominously, before opening wide. They revealed a far too large mouth decorated with pulsating eyes, all staring at the stranger hungerly. She was lifted to the gaping maw. But before it could close down on her, she stabbed into the roof of the mouth with the blade in her hand.

Ace dropped her and let out a metallic roar as her mouth snapped shut. Despite the fragment being larger than her head and pierced hilt deep, there was no sign of it piercing out of her head. As Ace backed away gripping at the face of her helmet, the stranger grasped at the slick fragment on the ground in front of her.

Soon Ace recovered from the wound and was bearing down on her again. The stranger stood defiantly, gripping the blade in her good hand and glaring hatefully at the abomination.

“What is going on here?” came a new voice. Ace stopped and both of the warriors turned to face Eden and the audience of guards.

“Your incompetence let intruders in the castle,” the stranger bit out through grit teeth.

“They’re not intruders---” Eden started.

“Hello boss!” Emily cheerfully waved by the doorway. Eden took a deep breath.

“They’re guests,” she finished.

“They’re what,” the stranger said. “Why would you let this filth in?”

“Not now Elysion,” the queen tiredly replied. She then waved the guards off dismissively, “Back to your posts.” Most of them started walking off upon hearing their orders, but a few instead glanced at Elysion instead. “Now,” Eden repeated with irritation. The other guards decided to follow their instructions.

“You,” Elysion suddenly said to one of them. “Find my other blade,” she ordered the shaking guard.

“Now why did you start fighting?” Eden asked Elysion.

“Well, this little shitheel attacked me. So I ordered Ace to feed her teeth,” Eden and Elysion whipped around to see Emily. She had somehow reached her instantly and silently.

“You were reading stolen books!” Elysion says harshly.

“I… loaned them to her,” Eden weakly offered.

“You---” before she could launch into a tirade, the guard returned with her sword. Elysion wordlessly dropped her sword fragment and tore the sword from the guard’s hand and attached it to her belt. “Give. Me. My sword,” she demanded from Ace as she turned around.

Ace just stared at her blankly.

“What did I say?” Elysion furiously demanded. Eden and the guard stepped back.

Ace slowly glanced at Emily, who simply shrugged. Ace then turned back to the furious Dullahan royalty. Slowly her jaws shifted and cracked ominously, before opening again. All the pulsating eyes once again staring at Elysion.

“No,” came Ace’s voice clearly. The seething royalty reached in and tore it free, a spray of thick black fluid followed swiftly. Wordlessly, she picked up the fragment of the sword on the ground and stormed off

“Well, I guess it’s back to work for me,” Emily announced and started to walk off. She suddenly stopped and turned to the shaking guard. “Did we meet before?” she asked.

“Y-yes…” she answered. “Y-you… you tore out my heart,” she elaborated.

“Could’ve sworn I removed those memories. Ah well, it’s not an exact science. Good luck on that date with your girlfriend!” Emily encouraged as she walked off. Ace quickly followed her. Eden and the guard ended up the last people standing in the bloodstained hallway.

“What girlfriend?” the guard quietly asked with a growing sense of dread. Eden just sighed.


End file.
